


The Horror of Nightfall

by AP_Blue (orphan_account)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Awakening Abilities, Body Horror, Broken Bones, Disfigurement, Dubious Science, Escape, Fear, Gen, Gore, Human Experimentation, M/M, Medical Experimentation, Pain, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:02:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24032461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/AP_Blue
Summary: Dark smoke enveloped me. I saw a void of black, and as I tilted my head up, there was a shadowy figure with white eyes standing over me.“I’ve been watching you,” he said, grinning at me. My mouth hung open. I could feel myself shaking.
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	The Horror of Nightfall

**Author's Note:**

> My friend edited some parts at the beginning and end for me. She’s an awesome writer and made things flow more smoothly, she also gave me advice on some things I should change. All my thanks to her!!!

Heavy breathing. The thud of my footsteps. The crackling of dry leaves and twigs beneath my strides. These were the sensations I felt as I blindly tore through the forest. It was night, and I could hardly see my surroundings, but, it didn’t matter. I didn't know if I was being followed, I just knew I had to escape.

I was running for what felt like hours. My legs should have buckled long ago, but fear powered me with pure adrenaline. Out of no where, my left ankle twisted as it collided with something hard. I flailed to keep upright, but my body fell fast against the ground. Pain jolted through my head as it slammed against the forest floor. My heart was pumping hard, but my body wouldn't move, and as I laid face down, breathing in dirt, my exhaustion finally caught up to me.

I laid there a few moments until my heart calmed and my breaths slowed. My ankle was throbbing. I was weak, and my limbs shook when I tried to move them even slightly. I shifted my arms to pat my hands on the ground, hoping I'd be able to find something I could balance on to stand. I stretched them as far as they could reach, desperately searching until finally my fingertips brushed against what felt like tree bark. Perfect. I clawed my way towards the tree until I was able to grab on. Slowly, I pulled myself up, struggling and wavering as I put my weight onto my right leg first, balancing myself on the the tall pine as I tried to straighten out. I hugged the tree and braced myself, taking a few steady breaths in preperation to take a step forward with my left leg. My ankle was still pulsating and although I didn't feel any pain, I was unsure how it would feel when I tried to walk on it. Still, it was only throbbing. It didn’t hurt, so it might be fine. I clenched a fist into the bark, and decided to chance it.

A loud CRACK sounded through the forest as my foot connected with the ground. A feeling of electricity and fire surged up from my ankle into my calf, and I gasped in air as I once again collided with the dirt.

Pushing myself onto my side, I laid in fetal position, taking sharp, deep breaths until the brunt of the pain subsided. My ankle was burning, pulsating hard as if my heart was beating through it. Pain shot through my leg each time I tried to move, and the muscles in my calf were twitching involuntarily, which added to my discomfort.

I gave up.

I had been running for miles, and from what I could tell there didn’t seem to be anyone following me. I was still exhausted, and regardless if my ankle was hurt or not at this point I don’t think I could muster the energy to start moving at the same pace. It was dark anyways, I couldn’t see anything. My best option would be to wait there until sunlight broke.

I pushed some the leaves and twigs away that were near me and moved my arm under my head, adjusting my upper body as much I could until I was in a position that wasn’t completely uncomfortable.

Slowly, I did my best to drift off to sleep.  
—-  
As expected, I didn’t get much rest last night. My sleep was broken, and the times I was able to drift off I kept having nightmares about what happened the previous day.

My thoughts kept surrounding the facility I worked at. I worked for the government as a scientist performing classified human experiments in a secured building located in the middle of nowhere. People living on the streets were taken against their will to perform various tests on, put into separate rooms with thick, sound proof walls and bullet proof glass so that we could easily check on them. Once they were in they had no chance of escaping.

The experiments included mixtures of drug and chemical injections, training and torture methods. The methods we used had been found to awaken supernatural abilities in certain humans, which the government wanted to control for personal use. These excitements went on daily, and although I couldn’t hear their screams through the soundproof walls I could peer into their rooms and see their reactions. Eyes bulging, faces pale, mouths open wide, bodies rigid as they desperately wanted to move but were chained down in place.

The eyes of the experiments followed me as I walked, looking through the windows. Some were pleading, others filled with hatred. Hundreds of experiments, some gone on for years, others cut short as they died early on. Multiple failures, rarely any successes.

One of these “successes” stuck in my man, a man that had been held captive in our facility for about 10 years. He had hung on through the torment, becoming severely disfigured and nearly dying multiple times.

The changes happened gradually. The shade of his skin changed from a healthy peach color to dead looking gray, to eventually a void of pitch black. His hair went from a warm brown hue to an ashy gray. His eyes used to be bright beautiful hazel and turned into a faded white. The skin on his face was crinkled and distorted, and his limbs were contorted and fell into an unnatural position due to the abuse. A dark, smoke-like mist seeped from his skin.

Through time and practice we found the extent of his abilities: he could distort his body to move easily through the shadows; he was also able to locate and control any object touched by the darkness within a certain range. The darker the area was, the further his reach. We had at least one man attempt made to enter the same room before we knew what he was capable of; it resulted in his neck getting snapped immediately. We could not get near him and were easily overpowered if we tried.

We eventually decided that he was too dangerous to be released. Attempts to kill him were made, but it seemed as though he was immortal. We found that he no longer needed to eat or drink, and decided the easiest thing would be to lock him away in a room with no windows and no chance for anyone to cross paths with him. Perhaps his loneliness would cause him to kill himself, then we would be rid of the problem. He was stuck in that room on his own for about two years, and no one had checked on him in that time.

His change had haunted me the most out of any person we’ve tested on. A once normal young man transformed completely turned into some sort abomination. He came in as a naive twenty year old, and as he survived through the torture, his naivety vanished and he became jaded and resentful. Whenever I was near him, his eyes would lock onto me, his gaze full of malice. He wanted to kill me. I tried to avoid his stare, I didn’t want him to know that I was terrified.

I hated working here. Every day felt bleak, I knew there was nothing good that I was accomplishing. I felt so guilty and conflicted, knowing that this wasn’t something I could continue to do with a clear conscience, and also knowing that if I tried to leave the government would be surveilling my every move, waiting for me to step one foot out of line so they could execute me.

I wanted to free them, and I knew that if I did so I would have to be on the run. I started planning, moving slowly over the course of months so that I wouldn’t look suspicious.

I planted bombs throughout the facility. In the walls and through the grounds. Anywhere that would lead to an easy escape route. I didn’t tell anyone about this, if the secret got out my life would be immediately over and the experiments wouldn’t get a chance to escape.

I waited until after work, when my coworkers began leaving the building. I stalled so that I would be one of the last ones out. The only ones left behind were some security guards and upper management that were still inside. I waited until I was at a good enough distance before I remotely set off the detonator. The second I did, I heard a loud, ear piercing explosion. Everyone beside me was looking towards it and panicking, and while they were distracted, I starting running.

——  
I opened my eyes. Light from the sunrise had started to shine through the trees. I pushed myself up into a sitting position and took in the area around me. There was just a lot of forest, leaves and branches littered the ground, and behind me I could see the rock that I tripped on. Slowly straightening out my leg, I decided to lift up my pants to get a good look at my ankle; it was completely swollen, purple and red, hot to the touch. I’m not sure how I would be able to move out of this position, as far as I can tell no one followed me and I’m miles away from any sort of civilization. I might just die here.

I lied back down, contemplating. I wondered how many people survived the explosion, if any. I hope they escaped, but if they died that might just be better than the life they were living. Tears prickled down the corner of my eyes, and I prayed that if I were to die here then it would happen quickly.

...  
The forest felt eerily quiet. Not even wind was moving the branches. It seemed as though I was waiting for something to happen, but I didn’t know what.  
...  
...  
Crunch.

I shot up and immediately whipped my head around, trying to find the source of the noise. It could have been an animal, but if by chance someone followed me here, I didn’t want them to find me. My heart pumped fast and I tried to slow my breathing so whatever that was didn’t hear me. I turned my head forward again and shut my eyes tight. I changed my mind, I don’t want to die here.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

The sound was getting closer. What is it? Do they know where I am?

Crunch. Crunch.

The sound stopped, and I held my breath. I could feel the presence of something watching me. My heart was beating in my ears. Slowly, I opened my eyes, and turned my head to face whatever thing was here.

Dark smoke enveloped me. I saw a void of black, and as I tilted my head up, there was a shadowy figure with white eyes standing over me.

“I’ve been watching you,” he said, grinning at me. My mouth hung open. I could feel myself shaking.

He knelt down beside me, and brushed my hair out of my eyes. I couldn’t move. “You don’t have to be scared. I saw you running for the longest time, I figured you might be tired after that, so I let you sleep. I hope you got enough rest, because I was wanting to spend some time with you today.” He smiled. “I have a few questions for you, ones that I’ve been meaning to ask for a long time, would you be so kind and help me out by answering them for me?”

Wordlessly, I nodded my head, wondering what he was going to ask.

“Good. Thank you. So first...” he put his arm around my shoulders, tightly grasping me into his body. My stomach was uneasy. He felt slender and cold. “I wanted to know, how did you feel when you were holding me down, injecting whatever that was into my bloodstream? You and your friends seemed to enjoy it.”

I went rigid. “No!” I said, “I didn’t. I didn’t enjoy any of it. It was horrible, I didn’t want–“

“You didn’t? But you didn’t stop it.” His hand grasped my shoulder tighter.

“I didn’t have a choice, I didn’t know what they would do if I didn’t follow orders. I swear.”

“What do you think would have happened?” He asked, “do you think they would have captured you? Tortured you like they did me?”

I hesitated. “I uh, I don’t know. Probably...”

“Are you saying torturing me instead was worth it, because my life was worth less than yours?” It felt like his grip was starting to tear into my skin at this point, and I let out a whimper in pain.

I didn’t respond, and he let out an annoyed grunt.

“Let’s move on to the next question,” he started, “so, uh. You remember when you guys locked me away? And then just kept me in hidden in that room for god knows how long?” He waited. I slowly nodded my head again.

“Ok. Well, can you tell me what the point of that was?” He moved his face in closer to me, a wide grin on his face with a look of encouragement as though he really didn’t want to miss my answer. I felt scared and uncomfortable, guessing that any answer I had at this point would be the wrong thing to say.

I cleared my throat, trying to answer as calmly as I could. “W-well,” my voice was trembling, “we felt like you were dangerous.”

He chuckled. “Is that why, you thought I was dangerous?” His nails were embedded deep in my arm, and he started to drag his fingers downward. I could feel the blood pouring out and I yelped in pain as response. “You treated me as a toy to play with and then when I got to be too much you locked me away. You were the ones that caused my problems, and yet you decided I was too much trouble and locked me somewhere I could never escape.”

Releasing the grip on my arm, he quickly moved his hand to grab a handful of my hair and forced my face down in the dirt. My head slammed in the same area that that it hit the previous night, and it caused a searing pain from my skull to the back of my neck.

“You ruined my life. You treated me like nothing. Like I’m not even human. Do you even know my name? Or am I just another experiment to you?”

“You’re not!” I cried.

“What’s my name?” He asked again.

I kept crying. I didn’t want to answer.

“What’s my name?!” He asked more forcefully, and pulled my head up from the dirt. He pulled me onto my back and straddled my torso, leaving one hand on my head and the other around my neck.

He brought his face close. “Are you scared?”

I sobbed.

The dark smoke was starting to block my vision. An unnatural heaviness surrounded my entire body, from my head to my feet. And then, I felt my left ankle twist around sharply. Multiple loud cracks and pops happened all at once and the pain that came with it was excruciating, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. My back arched and my hands grasped at the leaves on the ground as I screamed. My vision was blocked by tears. The fear that took over my mind was overwhelming. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to escape.

Then I started to feel pressure on my ribcage, and it was getting harder for me to breathe.

“I went searching for you when I escaped.” He grinned against my ear. “I over turned dead bodies until I realized you weren’t there. Luckily, the moon was a just a sliver, and the night was dark enough for me to sense someone running through the forest. I waited until sunrise to make my appearance, I wanted you to see my face in the light of day.”

More pops. My ribcage cracked inward and I wheezed blood. I knew shards of bone had to be piercing my organs. My face grew cool under the sun, and I thought that it might be turning blue. I could hardly breathe, couldn't scream. I didn't try to talk.

He continued, “Every day in that dark room, I wanted to die. I tried to do myself in, multiple times. Which you know, and know that I couldn’t. I wanted you to suffer. I dreamed of it. Held on because of it. I needed you to feel my pain, if even just a fraction of what I had to live with.” He pressed his thumbs against my eyes, pushing inward until there was a sickening pop, and I felt blood streaming down my face. The pain reached into my skull, as though he had lobotomized both of my eye sockets and left the tools embedded in my head.

My entire body felt like it was on fire. The pressure against my lungs squeezed, tighter and tighter, and the sounds of crunching bones through each and every inch of my torso and limbs began to feel like nothing. I was numbing. The shock was shutting down my sense of feeling. My organs shifted out of place. It felt like they were pushing towards my rectum, wanting to escape from my stomach, yet the shock still lulled me into a daze. My lungs were near completely compressed now. Moving was impossible. I just lied there, gasping shallow breaths, waiting for it all to stop.

Finally, he stood.

“Well, consider me merciful. A fraction of my suffering was enough to satiate me," he said, and his voice drifted further away. "You better pray death finds you soon. Before the beasts of the forest do.”

Suddenly, I felt the pressure leave my body all at once, leaving behind only the pain that traveled throughout.

I heard the crunching of leaves again. Despair and hopelessness creeped in as I realized I was completely alone, surrounded by nothing but a vast forest. No one is going to help me.

I lied there for what felt like an eternity, every breath I made caused a sharp pain. My vision was black as my eyes had been crushed. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t move; my bones were shattered from my neck down and it forced me to go completely limp. Terror consumed me, and at that moment it felt like it was the only thing in my life that I knew.

Time moved slowly, and the sensations that started so strong eventually faded away until I felt nothing, and my consciousness went along with it. I accepted my fate.

This is the death I deserve.


End file.
